More traffic chaos on Britain’s motorways as car bursts into flames on the M40

Carnage has also been reported across the nation’s rail services.

Major delays have been reported across the country as holidaymakers head out en masse for the Easter Weekend.

Traffic is understood to have been temporarily halted along the M40’s northbound carriageway outside Warrick as emergency services respond to a car fire. 

National Highways tweeted at around 11am saying this had caused delays of at least 20 minutes for incoming vehicles, with the incident still ongoing as of 1pm. 

The agency’s website also lists ‘severe’ congestion along the A303 westbound and the A1 northbound, as well as lane closures on the A19 northbound due to a vehicle breaking down on the road. 

There are similar reports of ‘moderate’ congestion along the A27 westbound, as well as another breakdown on the M62 eastbound and a collision on the M25 between junctions J17 and J16. 

It comes after 20-mile long queues on major motorways delayed journey times on Good Friday. 

An RAC survey suggests that as many as 14 million trips will be made over the weekend, with processing times at the Port of Dover stretching up to two hours and hundreds of thousands headed to the nation’s airports. 

Disruptions, cancellations and diversions have similarly cropped up across national rail services. 

National Rail states a broken rail between Newcastle and Durham has created significant disruptions on services between Edinburgh, Birmingham and Bristol, between Newcastle and Reading, between Aberdeen and London, and between Newcastle and London, all expected to last until the end of the day.

The firm says it is conducting ‘major engineering work’ over the weekend, with ‘various routes’ affected as improvements are made along the London Euston to Milton Keynes Central line, London Liverpool Street to Colchester line, and the Elizabeth line. 

There will also be ‘key work’ taking place at Glasgow and in Huddersfield. 

In London, there are currently no services via Denmark Hill due to engineering work between Britxton and Nunhead, with no morning trains having run through Charing Cross due to work between there and Waterloo East. 

Bus replacement services are also in place for trains via Faversham, as well as between Sevenoaks and Maidstone East, Borough Green and Wrotham, and Lewisham and Sidcup.

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